Safe And Sound
by PepperF
Summary: My take on the traditional escape pod scenario. All I know about escape pods and planetary landings has been gathered from scifi, so please ignore any dodgy physics.


"Someone needs to go with the Colonel." 

Jonas looked at Sam. Teal'c looked at Sam. Sam looked at Jonas, then at Teal'c.

Sam sighed.

"Okay," she said, reluctantly. "I'm the smallest, I'll go."

Jonas nodded, looking relieved. "Thanks, Sam," he said. He was currently propping up Colonel O'Neill's unconscious body in an open escape pod. Sam ducked beneath his arm, and took the Colonel's weight, slinging his arm over her shoulder and wrapping her arm around his waist, using the walls of the pod to keep him upright. Once set, she nodded.

"See you planetside."

"Good luck," said Jonas. Teal'c bowed his head briefly, and slapped the release button. And they were off.

It was a bit like being in a cocktail shaker, only without the fun alcohol part. Fortunately, they were crammed so tightly together that there was little room to crash against the sides. Yeah. Fortunate, thought Sam, grimly. Just keep telling yourself that, girl.

Inertial force pressed down on her knees and shoulders, trying to squash her into a small puddle in the bottom of the pod. She clutched the Colonel tightly, to keep him from slipping awkwardly down – but a tiny part of her found it absurdly comforting, too. Like holding a teddy bear. A giant, warm teddy bear. Very warm, in fact. Was he running a fever? She tilted her head back. He was pale, and looked pained – which was hardly surprising, really, considering the crappy week they'd all just been through. The Colonel wasn't the only one who'd had the hand device used on him – they'd all got their share – but he'd definitely had it worst. She dragged a hand through the artificial gravity effect of extreme velocity, and pressed the nearest skin she could find – on his neck. Warm, definitely, but not too hot. Good. His first mission after a month of recovery, and it had gone so well. Naturally. He was like a lightning rod for trouble.

The initial shakes settled down, and she could picture the tiny box shooting through clear space. She shivered, glad that there was no window. Her imagination was bad enough, but her technical knowledge was worse. She knew exactly the sort of things that could so easily go wrong – and they all came back to her now, in horribly clear detail. The pressure on her knees and shoulders eased, and she shifted her grip on the unconscious man in her arms. It was ironic, really: this was the closest she'd been to him in... in a very, very long time – Antarctica? Hathor? no, the Jonah / Thera thing, of course, how could she forget that – and she couldn't enjoy it.

The Colonel chose that moment to return to consciousness. His eyelids fluttered open, and he blinked in confusion at his surroundings. Then an expression dawned in his widening eyes that she could honestly never remember seeing there before: flat terror. Shit, she thought, suddenly realizing. Ba'al and his wonderful sarcophagus – still painfully recent. Of course he'd...

"No..." he breathed, staring at the box lid in front of him.

"Colonel, listen to me. We're in an escape pod," she said quickly, trying to draw his attention.

He was oblivious. He stretched out an arm, the one that wasn't wrapped around her shoulders, and pushed with increasing panic against the lid. "No!"

"Colonel!" She gave him a shake, which – in a big, shaking box – was scarcely noticeable. She grabbed his face, and turned it towards her. He blinked at her, and the blind panic receded slightly. His hand dropped from the lid and onto her shoulder. She ignored the part of her brain that was busy noticing how he now had his arms around her.

"Carter?" he croaked, looking disorientated.

"Yes, sir," she said, in relief. "We're in an escape pod. We had to leave the teltec 'cause the auto-destruct was going to go off. Jonas and Teal'c will meet us on the planet. We'll be landing soon, so I suggest you brace yourself."

"Carter?" His grip tightened, pulling her closer – an amazing feat, given how intimately squashed together they already were. "What're we..." He paled further, and a pained frown creasing his forehead. "I don't feel so good..." he mumbled – then his eyelids fluttered shut, and he slumped against her again, face buried in her hair.

Sam sighed, adjusting her grasp. It was probably for the best that he was out cold for this particular ride. The pod was beginning to slow as it hit the upper atmosphere – she could tell by the way all that fun shaking was starting up again. "H-h-hold o-o-on," she said aloud – more for her own reassurance than anything. "I-i-i-i'll g-g-get yo-o-o-ou ho-o-ome, s-s-saf-f-f-fe an-n-n-nd s-s-soun-n-nd."

She shut up then as a jolt shook them, and a flash of what it might be like to bite off her own tongue flashed through her head. She gritted her teeth. The pod began to heat up as they ripped through the atmosphere of the planet, but she tried to ignore the million and one ways to die that were circling in her brain. They would land, safe and sound. She would get him to the Stargate, which would be where they hoped it was on this planet. She would get him home to the SGC, and into Janet's capable hands.

"Shi-i-i-i-i-it, shi-i-i-i-i-i-i-it, shi-i-i-i-i-i-i-it," she chanted through gritted teeth. The pod was unbearably hot now, and the shaking was becoming harder and harder to fight – her muscles so tense that she felt she was about to snap. "La-a-a-a-and a-l-l-l-l-l-lread-d-d-d-d-dy, y-y-y-y-y-you bas-s-s-s-s-star-r-r-r-r-r-rd!"

The shaking got worse. "I-i-i-i-i'm ne-e-e-e-e-ever-r-r-r-r-r dri-i-i-i-i-i-inking-g-g-g-g-g-g co-o-o-o-o-ockta-a-a-a-a-a-ails aga-a-a-a-ain," she vowed, miserably. Hell, if they were about to die... She buried her head in her Colonel's chest, putting her arms around him properly and bracing her butt against the wall of the pod. She breathed in. He wasn't the most fragrant he'd ever been, but she was no bunch of flowers herself, at the moment. Was it weird that she still liked how he smelled? Probably. Then he moaned against her hair. Oh, please, don't wake up now, she prayed silently. Not now, for god's sake.

"C-c-c-c-c-c...?" Of course, he'd always been contrary.

"Sh-h-h-h-h-h-h." She hugged him tighter, and he seemed to get the message. His arms closed around her, and – despite the heat, the shaking, the immediate possibility of death in a multitude of violent ways, the fact that both of them were more than a little smelly and dirty – she found comfort in his embrace. All they could do was hold on to each other as

there was a brief moment of blessed smoothness, and then a

violent shudder and

a sharp drop as

gravity grabbed them and

they were upside-down

bouncing

right side-up

headfirst

tumbling

crashing

smashed about like clothes in a

washing machine on

spin cycle and

crash

bang

wallop

thud

and

then...

silence.

"Shit."

"You can say that again. Sir."

Sam, quite frankly, was feeling as limp as... as a very limp thing, and not in the slightest bit inclined to detangle herself from her Colonel. They were on the floor – ceiling? side? – of the escape pod, in a muddle of arms and legs, simply breathing. It was perfectly still. She'd never appreciated stillness quite this much before. Wow. It was just so... still.

"What the hell just happened?"

She couldn't even seem to summon the energy to open her eyes. "Teltac. Auto-destruct. Escape pod. Planet," she summarized.

There was a thoughtful silence, then: "I don't think I've ever heard a more succinct explanation from you, Major," said Jack O'Neill, amusement in his voice. "I should have you dropped on your head more often."

"It's not my head that I've landed-" she broke that sentence off abruptly, and opened her eyes, suddenly aware of their, uh, intimate position. "Uh, can you see the release button, sir?"

"Is it orange?"

She rolled her eyes, knowing he couldn't see her from where he was – her head was tucked under his chin, and she was sprawled across him, her arms trapped under his back. His hands were – well, they must've landed there by accident, she decided. It was a perfectly reasonable explanation. He hadn't removed his hands yet, though, and she was damned if she was going to mention it. "Yes, sir."

"Then I can see it."

There was a pause. "Uh, you wanna hit it, then?"

He sighed, and she was lifted and dropped with his chest. "I guess," he said, reluctantly. "I was just enjoying having stopped. Feels like I haven't done that in months."

She sighed too. It had been one hell of a year. Never mind that, it had been one hell of a decade. She relaxed against him a little more, not really wanting to move just yet. "How's your head?"

"Oh, you know – excruciatingly painful," he said chattily. "You okay? What happened to Jonas and Teal'c?"

"I'm fine. Shaken, not stirred." He gave a little groan. "Jonas and Teal'c should be okay, but we'd better go find 'em."

"You know where the hell we are?"

"Yes, sir. P4R-"

"Good," he interrupted. "Don't give me details right now, my head might just explode."

She gave a huff of laughter. The moment slid on for a bit, and then - "I'm sorry, Colonel." Shit. Why had she said that? Of course, it had been preying on her mind for a while – ever since the Tok'ra representative had announced his 'bad news', in fact, and she'd realized that they'd let the Colonel down, left him weak and in the hands of people who hadn't looked out for him as well as his team would – but was now really the best time to-

"What for?"

"Not getting you out sooner. Not realizing you'd gone missing for so long. I can't believe it took so long to find out you'd gone missing from-"

"Major," he interrupted, sounding extremely tired, "forget it. Please. Nothing to apologize for."

"But I should have-"

"You didn't know. You thought I was safe with the Tok'ra. And I won't be accepting their apologies, oh, in this lifetime," he added, bitterly.

"But we didn't even-"

"You gave me a fighting chance." He patted her, and she really, really hoped that he didn't know where his hand was. "That was all I ever needed. Nothing to forgive, Carter."

She sighed, not quite accepting his assurances, but content to leave it for now. God, this was comfortable, lying on his chest – more than it should be, given their CO/subordinate status. She could just stay right here forever and... and on that note, she really should get up and get away. She was enjoying this far too much for her own good.

He had clearly reached the same conclusion, because his hand left the part of her anatomy that it had accidentally landed on, and hit a spot just behind her head. The pod whooshed open, and they blinked in the sudden light. "Ow. Crap. That's bright." Sam sat up, realized she was now sitting in his lap, and clambered out of the pod as quickly as she could manage – whilst at the same time trying not to jab him with elbows and knees. "Ow! Goddammit, Carter-!"

"Sorry, sir."

"Argh. S'okay. Gimme a hand, willya?"

She helped him out, and stopped him just in time from leaning against the pod. "Hot, sir. Very, very hot."

He looked at the smoking pod and nodded. "Okay, then." He stumbled a few feet away, and slumped to the ground –pale and barely this side of conscious, despite his joking tone.

She thumbed her radio. "Jonas? Teal'c?"

There was a brief silence, then a voice came through. "I am down safely, Major Carter," said Teal'c, as calm and unshaken as ever. "Are you and Colonel O'Neill well?"

"We're okay, thanks, Teal'c. Jonas?"

Jonas's voice crackled through, sounding about as disheveled as she felt – good, she thought, uncharitably. "I'm all right," he said. "I can see your pod from here. I'm on the hill to your left." She turned quickly, and saw the smoking remains of another pod. Jonas was silhouetted against the skyline, and waving.

"Get down here," she said sharply, aware of the easy target he was making himself. "Teal'c, you got any idea where you are, or where we are?"

"No, but I shall find you. I will not have landed very far away. Remain where you are," said Teal'c.

"Okay. Check in every twenty minutes," she replied.

"Very well. Out."

She looked at the Colonel, who hadn't yet passed out again, but looked like he was contemplating it. "You going to stay conscious this time, sir?"

He squinted at her. "Maybe. Are we by any chance near a Stargate – and therefore home and aspirins?"

"Hopefully, yes." He grimaced, and rubbed his head. "Just hang on a little bit longer, we'll get you home soon," she said reassuringly, earning herself a sideways look from the Colonel.

"You sound like my mother."

She flashed him a grin.

Jonas arrived, and Teal'c not long after, and – to cut a long story short – they located the Stargate and dialed home with great relief. Jonas and Teal'c went through, both annoyingly buoyant about the entire thing, and Sam and the Colonel staggered after them. O'Neill paused in front of the shimmering blue wormhole, and looked at Sam. "Thanks," he said.

"For what?"

He shrugged. "Getting me home, safe and sound." He paused, and looked at her for a long moment. "As always," he added, quietly.

Sam could only think of one thing to say. "Always will, sir," she promised solemnly, meaning it.

He gave her a nod. And they stepped through the Stargate together, heading home.


End file.
